Transgender-rights ad to run on Fox News final night of GOP convention

A LGBT-rights coalition called Fairness USA has debuted a 60-second commercial that advocates protections for transgender people. The partnership plans to run the ad July 21 on Fox News, the final night of the upcoming GOP convention.

The ad features Alaina Kupec, a transgender woman from North Carolina, where HB2 passed earlier this year. HB2 makes it illegal for transgender people to use restrooms in public buildings that match the gender they live every day, making them susceptible to even higher levels of harassment and violence, according to a Fairness USA news release.

“Transgender people desperately need laws that protect us from being unfairly fired from our jobs, kicked out of our homes, and denied access to public bathrooms, just because of who we are,” says Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, part of the coalition that comprises Fairness USA. Also in the partnership: Freedom for All Americans Education Fund, the Movement Advancement Project and the Equality Ohio Education Fund, with support from the Equality Federation Institute, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.

“Our newly released survey data shows that 59 percent of transgender people avoided bathrooms in the last year out of fear of harassment,” Keisling also says in the news release. “A shocking one in ten (12 percent) transgender people reported being harassed, attacked, or sexually assaulted in a bathroom, and one third avoided drinking or eating so that they did not need to use the restroom. Eight percent have had medical problems like urinary or kidney infections from avoiding the restroom.”

Fairness USA plans to also run the national ad July 28 on MSNBC during the final night of the Democratic convention.